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'Trouble the Water' Eyes Katrina from Inside the Storm

With three years' worth of outraged hindsight to go on, the Robertses' shaky-handed coverage and Deal and Lessin's focus on storytelling make Trouble the Water a digestible account -- and an indispensable supplement to our understanding of just what the hell happened in New Orleans.

Willamette Week is Portland's award-winning alternative: The only weekly newspaper ever to win the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting (2005). Because of our investigative reporting, cultural coverage, city guides and events, we have become Oregon’s leading news source for Portlanders...

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Regardless of who takes the gold on Sunday, Carl Deal feels his film's influence on the discussion about Katrina -- specifically, its first-person commentary on how governments prioritize and interact with the people they are supposed to serve -- is victory enough.

Not the least of the unprecedented ideas behind Prospect.1, the international art biennial opening this week all across New Orleans, is that the United States' first such major exhibition is happening in a city brought to the edge of ruin just three years earlier.

More by Saundra Sorenson

Coogan is the master of center-stage asshattery. In place of an arrogant blowhard, Coogan is reduced to the drama teacher who cares a little too much and is painfully oblivious to the way his effeminate enthusiasm alienates his students.

A Romanian cop named Cristi gathers evidence on some poor kid for smoking a little hash. See Cristi follow the kid to school. See Cristi pick up a joint. See Cristi eat lunch. See Cristi pick up another joint.

The AGT crew was in Portland looking for more talented and crazy people. It was the last and smallest stop on an eight-city audition circuit that included New York, L.A. and Chicago. Jason Raff, one of the show’s executive producers, says AGT chose Portland this year in part because “not many shows are filmed here.” In other words, we’re fresh meat.

Yes, I know, it’s already 2010. I’m sure by now 2009 is now a distant memory. We’d rather forget the year that cultivated both the recession and MTV’s The City. While it’s a bit tough to summarize the best TV in a given year, as most shows run across years, these five stand above the rest.